Nick's Carry
by stevegallacci
Summary: Judy discovers Nick has a gun


"Argh, what a day." Nick simply groaned, too tired to make a joke. "I need a break." Being a policemammal was hard. After the first flush of the new, the routine activity could get old really fast. A lot of hurry up and wait as well. But the worst was the unexpected ten hours of boring turning into ten seconds of terror.

That he was teamed up with his best bud, what a thought, looking at the little rabbit Doe at his side, made it all worth it. They, of course, were more than just best buds. They had the bonds of shared peril and from that, deep concern for each other, a kind of love. It grit Nick at times when he caught speculations that they had a more superficially physical relationship. Which was absurd, of course, the kind of thing that would only come up in the most depraved mind.

Today was a nasty mix of the action possibilities and he was feeling frazzled, more needing to relax than crash out.

Judy recognized that and made a suggestion, "Nick, lets pop by my place to chill a bit then go for a ride." that meant the gondolas that laced over he districts of Zootopia. After Nick's great confession, the gondolas had become the place for quiet contemplation, private yet open to the world.

As small as it was, Judy's apartment was getting even smaller with the accumulations of the time there. A wardrobe and book cases cut in to the already minimal elbow room. But it was now spotlessly clean and well maintained.

Nick's place was still a bit squalid.

As soon as they got inside, they began to strip off their gear and uniforms. When Judy was down to just her panties and cropped tank -top, she stretched, considered a moment, and then pulled off her top and sprawled on her bed. Despite her reactions to the Naturist's club back in the day, she didn't have any problem with near nudity in private. Especially as it meant some good grooming action. "Nick," she not quite whined, "I need a fox fix on my back."

Nick mock-pouted,"And what's in it for me?"

"Beyond my enduring gratitude?" Judy twisted her self stiffly, "I'll be able to give you the full Hopps treatment."

"Oh! Why didn't you say so!"

So, for the next hour they rubbed and kneaded sore muscles and brushed out fur. To get the full Hopps treatment, Nick had to drop his big baggy boxers, but that was no issue. They were just a pair of mammals in a cozy social groom.

Later, they lay there, spooned, enjoying their mutual warmth. "I could almost stay here forever." Nick sighed.

"Almost?" Judy was half-interested in just calling it a night with the big fox warmer around her.

I'm afraid my brain is still on all the crazy of the day and I'm getting hungry. And last I heard, it was illegal to gobble up little grey bunnies," giving her a little tickle.

"I could go for a bite myself" and Judy went chomp chomp in his direction.

"Eek! Bunny turns pred! News at eleven!" Nick got up and stretched, putting on his big baggy boxers. He indicated he needed the little fox's room out the door and down the hall.

When he left, Judy began to pick up their dropped gear. They kept a change of civvies at each other's place for just this kind of thing, and had several little over-night bags at hand to shuttle stuff between their respective apartments and the office. Nick would go home later and would want to carry his uniform and gear with him. They had never had a real sleep-over before, and in the warmth of the moment, she kind of wished...

Then it fell out of his wadded trousers.

A gun, a pistol, a firearm. Her reflexive reaction was to open and clear it of ammunition. She sat down on the floor, looking at the pawfull of cartridges and that thing.

The ZPD prided itself on its non-lethal policing practices. In the past, they only carried batons. Then with advancing technologies and more belligerent offenders, darters and then stunners become the common carry. But actual firearms were not unknown, and SWAT and others had a few guns as a terrible last resort. Every office was trained with them, at least the safe handling. Judy had not shot one since her time in the academy.

Judy intellectually understood the sometime necessity of such, but her heart wanted a more peaceful place, and it hurt to know such a thing was in their midst.

Nick entered the room and saw her, her dismayed expression, and it.

He began to say something, caught it, tried again, no luck.

"What? Why?" Judy pleaded.

Nick plopped to the floor opposite her, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. After a few moments, "The Night Howler incident was the worst time of my entire life." Big sigh. "When I got on the force, I vowed I'd always have the means to protect you." He looked mournfully towards her. "I've had it since the first day."

Now she was puzzled, and a little concerned, "This can't be authorized, can it?"

"It wasn't easy, especially as I'm just a Fox." a little sour face, "But I passed all the evals and do a stress-fire drill every month."

Judy suddenly remembered a couple of times when Nick had come back from a 'something', he was always in a mood, his tail bottle-brushed and had an odd chemical smell about him. Then she thought about something else. If he had it with him all the time, which meant that he had NOT pulled it out in some rather harrowing instances. That was one of the concerns about partners becoming too close, protective over-reaction.

After several drawn out moments more, she handed it over to him. "I won't ask you to not keep it." was all she could say.

They still went out, for a too quiet dinner and a very long and silent ride. Nick dropped Judy off in front of her place, and before they parted, she gave him a particularly hard hug. She felt so guilty that she had forced him to make a deal with that little steel devil.

Six months later

It was an easy mistake to make, in hot pursuit, assuming the suspect would continue to flee instead of doubling back and laying in wait.

The Rhino was faster than he previously looked, neither of them saw the blow coming. A section of pipe swept them off their feet and into a pile some distance away. Nick was out cold, Judy gasped in pain. Broken arm? Broken ribs? And were was her darter?

The Rhino chuckled. "Should' a sent some real cops. Instead, we're jus' gonna add to that list of missin' mammals." He tested the heft of the pipe, "What to break first?"

Judy realized that their investigation had terribly turned from an odd spate of assumed runaways with a shifty "facilitator" into a serial killer's spree. She groped to Nick's darter, and the Rhino made no effort to stop her.

"Take your best shot."

She did, but her target's armored skin, and the bulky clothes he wore were obviously not having an effect. He grinned with the results.

"A tip," He leered,"you gotta use one of the mark sevens to even touch me." He gave an odd little shudder, "And a half-hit of the Juice is enough to counter a dozen dart hits, and without the crazy."

Judy cursed the bad luck. Juicing was one of the nastier results of the Night Howler incident. A family of illicit synthetic pharmaceuticals used to create a range of extreme reactions. Typically a temporary 'savage' effect, or weird delusional state. So far it had only been used by thrill-seekers who then got out of control and into trouble. That more dangerous individuals for more dubious intent were now a potential thing was oh, so bad news.

There was the sound of a police siren in the distance.

"Ah, if I'm gonna get you sufficently tenderized to go down the drain. Yeah, next time check the sewers for your DBs, I'd better get to it."

The first shot was a clear miss, the second caught him in the right eye, the third tore a groove up his forehead, the third also in his right eye. He lurched away, the forth shot in his right temple and the last just under the jaw line in the neck. He staggered, an expression of surprise faded with the weakening spurts of blood. He collapsed as the flow was reduced to a terrible trickle.

Judy lay there, trembling, still holding the thing. Training to the point of reflex kicked in. She cleared the weapon, called in her situation, "Officers Hopps and Wilde down, suspect is down, cannot assure a secured location. Send medical and a shooting assessment team on my beacon. In a detached fashion felt a little annoyed with the over-reactions on the channel to all that. Belatedly, she found more ammunition for the thing and reloaded it.

She hurt too much to keep sitting up and lay down on her back, holding the thing to her chest. She hurt, a lot, but she found herself shivering more over for what she had just done. An eternity later she heard someone calling out their tactical approach and she called back. "In here, on the floor to the right as you enter. Clearing my weapon now." then, "Weapon clear." She didn't want to be startled and have an accident, especially as she felt herself fading, the shock and pain was taking over.

The next days needed her to keep it together. Interviews and initial steps of inquests, fretting about Nick, who had not suffered lasting injury, and the treatment of her own injuries, a broken humerus and three cracked ribs. Then she had to deal with her parents and siblings.

Finally, a night when she felt she could afford to relax.

Bucky and Pronks heard the noise and called 911 immediately. An awful wail and sobs from the Bunny, who wasn't answering her door. Dispatch took it as an officer down call and a swarm of ZPD units and medics showed up. When they got in they found her largely cried out. The responding officers didn't mind the quasi false alarm.

Being second shift, they had had no direct contact with Hopps, but of course knew of her. Moreover, they heard about her recent action. None of them had fired a gun in anger or killed anyone in the line of duty. To see the tiny figure on the huge all-mammal size gurney, shuddering in pain, their Hero Bunny, so devastated, was both disconcerting and heartbreaking. She was taken to hospital, as it was felt she shouldn't be left alone for a while.

Nick was not informed.

He didn't find out until Clauhauser waved him down before morning roll the next morning and he bolted out, roll call be damned. He found her, surrounded by a small army of her siblings, looking awfully ragged.

"Hi, Nick," she said weakly. "Had a bit of a crying jag."

He had been warned about possible adverse emotional reactions to being a shooter, and feared something like this, but was unprepared for the reality of it. He muscled his way through the ring of defensive Rabbits to grip her paw.

"Yeah, its a thing." Nick then adroitly steered the conversation into small talk, holding her paw and stroking her head and ears. Her siblings had met him before to rather mixed reviews, and were not in a forgiving mood now, even witnessing the level of tender concern that FOX was demonstrating. But their Mother had slipped in quietly and watched it all from a little distance. One of the young Bucks turned to his Mother to object to all this and was silently chastised by her withering glance.

Finally, she made her way to the pair. "Hello Nicholas"

Nick grimaced, what can you saw to a Mother at a time like this, and a little extra stab, in that moment, reminded him all too much of his own. "Mrs. Hopps..."

"I'm glad to see she's in good hands now." and she flashed a look to her Children to make it clear she was not going to be contradicted. She hugged Nick's arm and leaned into him ever so slightly, looking down at her Daughter. She had a small, bittersweet smile. He had, in these few minutes, done more to comfort her little Bun than their collective over-night vigil. She saw the reactions the two had for each other and in that moment, knew she shouldn't expect grand children from her. But that didn't matter, they had saved each other's lives yet again, and more.

Judy was released the next day. It seemed it was just the pent-up emotions that she had not felt free to express before came out all at once.

As she was getting too antsy to stay away, she came back to work the next week. Needless to say she was confined to desk duty, and initially, Nick insisted on being there with her. However, between fretting over his partner's every twinge and his ineptitude with form 227 C, among others, he got put back on the street, temporarily partnered with Snarlov.

The huge Ice Bear respected Nick as a fellow officer, but didn't really care for him personally, and they only dutifully did their rounds as good cops do. However, a week or so in, during a break, he awkwardly asked Nick, "So, in worst case, you know, if thing happen, where you carry?"

The Fox sighed, "Sorry big guy. It would have been too small for you" and he held up his paw to contrast with the Great Bear's, it could not even span a single digit. "And" a sad pause "I only carry it for Hopps."

Snarlov grimaced, then suddenly had Nick in a smothering bear hug. "We all love little Bunny, eh?" then holding out the slightly crushed fox to give him an examining look, "You, not so much. But you good cop, and love Bunny, special love too, so maybe can love you too?"

While Nick knew that the whole shift loved their Bunny, it was nice to hear it aloud. The mention of special love bothered him though. Especially after the 'I know something you don't know' look he had gotten from her Mother.

In time Judy was both medically and psychologically cleared to get back on full duty. On their first day on the beat, she asked, flatly. "You still have it?"

Nick made a face, and nodded. She made a face and nodded too. And didn't say anything more about it, that day or the next week, and later, until Nick had to go in for his stress-fire refresher. "Uhm, Carrots, I got that - thing - I got to do..."

The cute little Bunny sighed, "I know, and I'm coming with you."

The Fox flicked in alarm,"You sure about that? It's kind of noisy and there isn't really a viewing area."

Judy drew in a deep breath and slowly blew it out, then,"No, I'm scheduled for it too." And held out her certification card. "If you are going to carry it for me, I want to be fully able to use it for you."

Nick briefly flashed on a lewd come-back about familiarity with a partner's 'weapon', but though better of that. "How could you get this so soon?"

"I did all the class work and evaluations while on desk duty, and did my first round of range training as soon as my cast was off."

"Nick sadly sighed, "I wish we didn't have to..."

"I know. Let's just get it done."

Later, at her place, they had intended on their usual grooming session, but found themselves clinging to each other in an almost desperate embrace. "I hate that so much." Nick hissed, and not for the first time. The test was a truly stressful experience, with all manner of distractions and impediments as well as lightening fast target choices. And the blast of the gun was just plain nasty, even with goggles and limited hearing protection. "And not because you scored higher." He was determined to break the mood with a little humor, but had been failing mightily.

"Yeah..." Judy was not feeling any better. The trauma of her shooting incident was now well past, but the drill was its own little nightmare. She looked up at her Fox. A tiny smile at the thought, he had never been 'her Fox' before. She sighed and considered a moment, then partly disentangled herself to draw his face down to her. She kissed him, long and warm, not a sexy kiss, but is was a loving kiss. "We'll get by."

They never talked about the thing. They dutifully did the monthly drills, and then the annual re-evaluation. And, so far, had not needed it again. 


End file.
